The present invention relates to a stand for photographic/optical and cinematographic equipment, according to the preamble to the main claim.
Stands of the aforesaid type are used widely in the photographic and cinematographic fields. An example of a solution offered by the prior art is constituted by stands in which the first and the second articulation elements are generally star-shaped with three lobes to which the legs and the corresponding arms connecting the legs to the central column are articulated, respectively. The presence of the connecting arms and the need for the column to be centered relative to the points at which the legs bear on the ground requires both articulation elements to have lobes arranged at 120.degree. to one another and the articulation axes of the legs and of the arms to be arranged perpendicular to radii of the axis of the central column. When these stands are intended for users who use them to a considerable extent, for example, hirers of cinematographic equipment for supporting screens, reflectors, lamps and other accessories, there is a need to store the stands in the most compact storage configurations. They are normally kept stacked parallel on top of one another but the bulkiness of the three-lobed articulation elements transverse the central column does not allow best use to be made of the storage space.
Stands with so-called free legs, which have no arms for connecting the legs to the central column are also known. With these stands it is possible, when the stand is closed, to achieve less bulky configurations than with stands having the connecting arms described above. For example, stands with legs which are supported by brackets mounted for pivoting on the central column, and which can be pivoted and aligned in a substantially flattened configuration when the stand is closed, are known. However, this configuration can be achieved precisely because of the lack of connecting arms, allowing the legs to be pivoted freely relative to the column. The absence of a connection between the leg and the central column, however, limits the use of stands with free legs purely to the support of relatively small loads such as those of small photographic devices and equipment; these stands are not, however, intended for supporting loads of a certain size such as those of the more bulky cinematographic equipment mentioned above. In these cases, it is essential to use stands with legs having intermediate connecting arms which act as ties for limiting the bending of the legs and the related stresses and, as a result, the above-mentioned problems are encountered with their storage.